In Our Minds

In Our Minds is on extended view through January 8, 2023, in the M's window galleries! Organized in collaboration with Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, this exhibition explores curiosity, fun, and the pleasure of artmaking. Enjoy recent works by Beatrix*Jar, Bill Crane, Kramer Hegenbarth, HML, Mary Johnson, Ashlea Karkula, Don Porcella, Mark Schoening, Andrew Seymour, Briana Shelstad, Dietrich Sieling, and Victor Van. On view in the Robert and 4th street window galleries.

Curator Of Exhibitions Laura Joseph 

"The artists featured in In Our Minds share an ability to highlight the presence of exciting potential in everyday objects, events, and circumstances. While they have this shared gift, they also have such distinctive and unique ways of helping others to experience the seemingly ordinary with a sense of curiosity and playfulness. This creates an uplifting sense of possibility that is especially needed and important during such anxious and uncertain times." 

HML

“What’s most important to me is that people enjoy it. I’m not in this to make money, I’m in it....as an enjoyable process and a thing that I do, as well as a really great coping mechanism for all my mental health issues.”

HML
Schwarzenegger, 2022, mixed fiber
Courtesy of the artist and Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts

In Our Minds celebrates artmaking as a form of research, improvisation, and play. These artists revel in the process of creation as an opportunity to test ideas and see how they will play out in material form.  Check out these engaging artworks in the M's window galleries downtown St. Paul.

Off The Deep End And Into The Skyways
On view in the Jackson Street skyway between 4th and 5th streets

Off the Deep End is a digital mural project on vinyl in the skyway over Jackson Street. Developed by students from Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists (SPCPA), it confronts themes surrounding a metaphorical rising sea level. With deep sea creatures at and above eye-level, human city-dwellers are faced with beings of mythos, which, if real, could only be seen in the hidden corners of the world. This reflects a real-life equivalent, referencing the “rising levels” of previously ignored groups, subcultures, and forces of oppression.  On view through May 15, 2023.

For more information about this program, enjoy this interview with Brooks Turner, artist and SPCPA's chair of visual arts department, on the M's blog.

Congratulations Tia Keobounpheng!

Recipient of the M's State Fair Award

Tia Keobounpheng's artwork, Threads no. 4, received this year's Minnesota Museum of American Art Award at the Minnesota State Fair!

This award, now in its 12th year, identifies a worthy Minnesota artist to add to the M’s permanent collection. Read more about this award, Tia Keobounpheng, and Threads no. 4 on the M's website.

IM/Perfect Slumbers

Opening next February in the M's street-facing window galleries

Im/perfect Slumbers is a multi-disciplinary series of events and installations occurring at the M’s windows and skyway entrance. An extension of textile artist and researcher Katya Oicherman's residency at the M, the project will feature diverse voices of local artists, writers, and cultural activists to capture the historical and the contemporary state of sleeping and being in bed.

Sleeping habits, behaviors, and objects are all very diverse, yet the very necessity of sleep is shared by all human beings and animals. Those familiar and accessible practices will serve as a conversation opener to reflect on the multitude of social, political, and psychological phenomena related to sleep and rest. 

Most of the work has been commissioned for the M’s window spaces, including visual and sound installations based on the history of the building as the home of the first local newspaper.

Save The Date!

The M's Annual Fundraiser
Thursday, May 4, 2023

Mark your calendars now for an exciting event supporting the work of the M. Inspired by the exhibition Im/perfect Slumbers and all things slumber, sleepy, dreamy, and relaxing, this event will be like no other.

If you're interested in supporting this event or putting your creative skills to work on the planning committee, please reach out to Director of Advancement Kate Tucker at [email protected].

Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated.